Table Travellers – Week 1

INTRODUCTION

My name isTaryn and my mum is the inventor of By Heart and Hand. Today at our house on the we ( Mum and I ) made paneer cheese, mango chutney, basil pesto, basil butter and homemade bread. First we went to the shops to get the ingredients. Then when we got back we started making cheese . Afterwards we made the mango chutney . Next we made the bread. Finaly came the basil pesto and the basil butter.
At tea time we fried some of the paneer and served it all together.
I loved the whole process (except for all the standing). The bread was my favourite part to eat but I really loved all of it!
See you next week!
Taryn

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1. PANEER CHEESE – made 350 grams

3 Litres of milk
80 ml white vinegar (or lemon juice or lime juice)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Bring the milk to the boil with the salt. Stir frequently as the milk catches and can burn easily. And don’t even blink as it boils over as soon as you look away and you’ll have a right royal mess. But your stovetop probably needs cleaning anyway if you’re like us – so see the bright side on the 90% liklihood of this happening!
Turn the milk down to low and slowly add the vinegar. Not too slowly. Just don’t plop it all in at once. Stir as you add. It will form curds and whey almost immediately (the lumpy bits are the curds and clearish greenish liquid is the whey).
Line a strainer with some cheese cloth or muslin. (We used a scarf). Carefully pour the curds and whey into the lined strainer.
You can stir or press (be careful as it’ll be very hot) the curds to encourage more whey on its way.
When cool enough twist the cloth as tight as you can.
Then you’ll need to have figured out some sort of pressing system. Our Gran’pa made us the contraption below – this was the first time we’d used it and it worked brilliantly.
Others just use two dinner plates base-to-base with the wrapped curds in between and a bowl of water or some heavy canned food to weight it down. Be prepared for some more whey to run off.
Leave pressing for a couple of hours, then carefully unwrap the finished cheese.
It can only keep for the same length of time as the fresh milk but we’ve read it freezes well. It can be kept in its original shape, or diced – which is what we did. Then submerge in water to stop it drying out.
Paneer does not melt when it is heated but do treat it gently and, while no one has ever paid me to eat tofu – I think the consistency is probably quite like it. Or like the firmer variety of feta.

NB –The fried version we served at dinner time was a bit bouncy. Perhaps crumbing it might have been better – and it slightly overcooked while I was trying to reach down the paper towel to drain it on. Also next time I think I would add maybe a whole teaspoon of salt – it was very mild and more salt might make it more like a ‘poor mans’ feta 🙂 It cost around $3.50 to make 350g.

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2. MANGO CHUTNEY – made 1 quite large jar

4 small squooshy mangoes roughly chopped
2 large onion chopped small
1 and 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon of any other indian kinds of spices in your pantry totalling about 4 teaspoons altogether. We had cummin, coriander, cinnamon, garam marsala, cardamom and probably some others but I didn’t write them down!

Pop all the ingredients apart from the mango into a pot and get it started as the onion will take the longest. Add the mango once the onion is close to translucent. This will be a guess as the colour of the spices will blind you 🙂
Let the whole lot simmer for a couple of hours – stirring very constantly as the sugar content means it can burn easily. It needs to reduce to a spreadable non runny mass.
When you think it’s done, por it into a sterilised jar.
Chutneys can potentially keep for years – as the sugar is a preservative but as this is a made up recipe and shelf life is untested, use your own judgement. Just eat it fast and you won’t need to worry. We’ll keep ours in the fridge when it’s cooled off enough.

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3.  EASY PEASY BREAD – made 4 quite large loaves so maybe halve the quantities

6 cups Plain Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (for taste)
2 tablespoons sugar (to help the yeast do it’s work)
6 teaspoons dried yeast
4-5 cups tepid (slightly more than room temperature) water
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix all the dry ingredients in your mixer. Or by hand but it will take much longer that way. MUCH.
Add most of the water and mix on slowest speed. Add more if the misture looks too dry. Add more flour if the mix looks sticky.
Mix on a higher speed for 2-3 minutes or knead by hand for 10 minutes. This increases the elasticity of the dough which is what makes it more like bread than cake.
Pop in a bowl (greased if you like) in a warm spot with a damp cloth over the top. This not only keeps any renegade flies off (we are in Australia) but also helps the dough not form a dry skin.
Leave till it’s doubled in size – half an hour give or take – depending on how warm your kitchen is.
Tip the dough onto a floured surface and literally punch it back – right in the kisser. Well – the centre. Then knead for 2 minutes or so.
Form the style loaves you desire.
Gently glaze with eggwash if you want. I never bother unless there are visitors – or if I want to sprinkle seeds over the top which you should also do before it rises the second time (seeds won’t stick without eggwash).
Leave till nearly double in size again. Pop the oven on to heat at this time. Moderate and fan forced is pretty much how everything here gets cooked , including this bread.
Pop in the oven – approx 35 minutes – but keep an eye on the colour and judge for yourself. Once it’s a good colour – take it out and ‘knock’ on the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow – it is done.
Plus it is an extremely satisfying sound 🙂

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4. BASIL PESTO – made 1 quite large jar

We needed to cull our basil plants by half so we hacked the top half of 12 plants off – filled 2 different size baskets and halved the amounts for the pesto and butter recipe below. These quantities are very loose!

1 full food processor jug of picked and washed basil
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of pine nuts (or in our case flaked almonds since Aldi had run out of pine nuts)
2 teaspoons chopped garlic

Pop all in the processor. Pulse it to start and then keep whizzing it till it’s as fine as your processor can handle.
Scrape into sterilised jar or other container.
Press down to eliminate bubbles, flatten the top and cover with some more olive oil to help it stop turning brown.
Probably should only store 3-4 days.

Basil pesto pasta coming up tomorrow night.

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5. BASIL BUTTER – made 2 smallish Chinese boxes full

1 full food processor jug of picked and washed basil
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons chopped garlic
250 gm room softened butter

All into the processor. Pulse to start then whizz till combined and fine. This should keep for at least a week, but I’m planning to freeze it to use as the fresh basil runs out.

Can be used to make basil/garlic bread, as a base/flavouring where basil is required in other recipes. DELICIOUS. Better than the pesto in my opinion!

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DINNER